User blog:The Villainous Vulture/Unknown Heroes - Chapter One
James Drake was in a panic. Not unusual, really. Anxiety was always his biggest weakness. Oh no, I spilled my coffee, everyone’s going to laugh. Oh dear, I filed the wrong paper, the boss is going to kill me. Today wasn’t like most days, however. Today he has a real reason to be afraid. To fear for his life. He heard gunshots. No doubt those 330-X psychos were unleashing hell onto the escaping subjects. The thing that scared James, however, was what the subjects would do to the X’s. Then to the boss. Then to him. His involvement in this entire thing was a mistake. Mr. Simmons wasn’t who he claimed he was. He wasn’t interested in helping others, he was out to help himself. But James needed more time to discover what he really wanted. Time it appeared he did not have. The barricade on James’ door was certainly not enough to keep the rioting subjects at bay, and they certainly would not be pleased to find a cowering staff member behind it. He just had to pray to whatever god was listening to keep him alive. “Come on, is that all you freaks have?! I was expecting some kind of challenge!” Malcolm Salipur’s unmistakable voice rang out from the hallway, along with the gruesome sound of flesh being severed with incredible ease. James stayed in his office, though. Malcolm never cared much for James or his anxious, awkward nature. He may just as easily kill the scientist as he would a subject. “Of course!” James suddenly yelled out, perhaps too loud. For a split second, he stared at the door in horror, fearing he alerted a rogue subject, but was both relieved and horrified to still hear the carnage erupting in the hallway. Surely they did not hear him. James continued his train of thought, as he began sloppily cramming folders and papers into his research bag. In his panic, he did not remember that there was a door that acted as a back entrance to his office. Stupid. All his findings crunched into the bag, and he grabbed his walkie-talkie. James crossed the small office, which despite its size seemed to take an hour. Once he was halfway to the door, dead silence invaded his ears. The hallways were quiet. Good, surely that meant everyone was gone. James continued to the door and moved his hand to the handle without looking, only to feel a hole. There was no knob on the door. Before he could even consider why the knob was gone, he heard footsteps directly outside of the door. James turned quickly, anxiety filling him. Oh god, oh god no, no, why are all the subjects not gone… The door began shaking with the force of being kicked. Being relatively weak, the barricade was not at all stable and collapsed within seconds of kicking. James was too paralyzed to move only a few steps and take the gun from his drawer. The door creaked open, a sound that once mildly irritated him that now filled him with absolute dread. James’ eyes found themselves looking not at a subject, however, but the man in charge of this entire project, Collin Simmons. Collin’s face was dead serious, stone cold. It was a look James had never seen Collin express, and it filled him with fear. Collin’s steps rang out like gunshots as he briskly strode to stand in front of James. James was two inches taller than Collin, but he felt so much smaller. Something about Collin had changed, and with James looking into the researcher and finding Collin to have been dishonest with the entire staff, he believed he knew why this shift in demeanour had come about. “M-Mr. Simmons...Why have you not left? The subjects they-” Collin lifted his hand and cut James off, his voice as cold as his face. “I know, James.” James involuntarily began to shake, feeling as if he was being lectured by a parent. He was never good with being chastised. “Know… what, sir?” It should have been obvious, but James asked anyway. Collin simply sighed, with a hint of sadness filling his voice. “I know that you looked into the real research I conducted.” James’ shaking got worse with Collin saying the words out loud. “Why… you used their DNA to attempt to become a Metahuman. Why would you do that?” Collin huffed a breath, slowly removing his horn-rimmed glasses. “That’s what you didn’t piece together, James,” Collin suddenly dropped the spectacles to the ground and stomped his foot on them, the crunching sound making James flinch. “I was a Metahuman all along, but I needed to make myself better.” This revelation left James with a million questions, but at a loss for words. After a few moments of trying to find his voice, he made the mistake of asking all of the questions at once. “But… the detectors didn’t pick up on you… and why would you need to be…” Collin raised his hand once more and spoke, more sadness filling his throat. “I wish I could have told you. I really considered you like a brother, James. But kept this a secret in order to protect you.” Despite the situation, Collin’s charismatic voice almost soothed James, almost. Nothing could calm his anxiety at this point. James simply stood there in silence for a moment, taking in what Collin had said, the dead silence filling the room once again. James looked into Collin’s eyes and was shocked at what he saw. He saw nearly no life. Collin was devoid of all emotion, except perhaps a fraction of regret. This look took James’ breath away. He had no idea how to respond to the look. After soaking it in for a few more breaths, James managed to barely whisper. “Protect me from what?” Collin reached placed his hand in his coat, maintaining eye contact with James the entire time. “Me.” In an almost impossible time, Collin pulled a knife from his coat and plunged it downward into James’ chest. James gasped for air, but blood was already filling his lungs. He slowly sank to the ground, first landing on his knees. He weakly gazed into the same dead eyes he had seen a moment before, with blood rising in his throat, making him inaudible. James then hit the floor, his vision fading. “No one can know about me.” Collin simply wiped the blade off on his coat, placed it back inside of the coat, and turned his back. With his last few seconds, James saw Collin continue his brisk pace into the gore filled hallway, no remorse in his step. Category:Blog posts